Have your say on the North West Leicestershire budget

They are inviting residents, tenants and businesses to comment on how it plans to spend and save money in the coming year.

Within this year’s proposed budgets, NWLDC plans to:

• Freeze its portion council tax for the eleventh year running
• Set aside £1 million to reduce its carbon footprint
• Allocate £50,000 to kick start a project on the future of Hermitage Recreation ground in Whitwick
• Increase council tax in some areas with special expenses to help it pay for some services (like play area maintenance and open spaces)
• Increase rents to council tenants by up to 2.7%
• Spend £4.5 million to start building 40 new council houses
• Extend its Free Tree Scheme with an extra £13,000
• Spend £15,000 maintaining additional trees planted in Coalville
• Spend £20,000 to help develop tourism in the district

NWLDC has two budgets, which can be commented on:

• The Housing Revenue Account is specifically for the authority’s landlord service (council housing). The income is solely from rents and service charges and the money is only spent in this area.
• The General Fund covers everything else the council does, from collecting waste and managing planning applications to managing parks and promoting tourism in our district. The income for this work comes from council tax and business rates, as well as other fees and charges like planning fees.

The surveys will be open until midnight on Monday 3 February.

Comments will be fed back to the authority’s Cabinet, which will meet to set the budget on Tuesday 4 February. The budget will be decided on at a Full Council meeting on Tuesday 25 February.

Councillor Nick Rushton, Corporate Portfolio Holder at NWLDC, said: “We’re pleased that the council is in a healthy financial position, so we can propose things in our budget like freezing council tax, investing in climate change action and building new council homes. The budget is ambitious and looks at how we can make improvements across all of our services.

“We are proposing to increase our income in some areas – mainly by increasing council house rents and an increase in council tax for areas with special expenses. This is to account for the increased cost of providing services, to make sure we remain financially healthy.

“I would encourage people to head to the online surveys and let us know what they think about the proposals.”